Zynga And Bigpoint Try To Use Apple Hype To Hide Huge Layoffs

The gaming industry is noted for treating its employees as annoyances best gotten rid of as soon as possible. Labor abuses are endemic in the industry, and there are firing stories that are awful in the sense that they both inspire awe at the sheer dickishness involved and fill you with disgust.

We bring this up not to highlight the cruelties of the gaming industry, but to point out that in an industry noted for treating employees badly when dismissing them, Zynga has managed to top them by trying to hide a massive layoff by doing it right in the middle of Apple’s presentation.

Possibly trying to hide the grim news by announcing it during Apple’s event, we’ve just independently confirmed that Zynga has shut down its Boston office and laid off 2/3s of the employees in its Austin office, including cuts to The Ville and Bingo teams. We’ve now confirmed the initial report from Justin Maxwell. We’ve also just heard Zynga may have an all-hands meeting this afternoon.